Da Shroom66 Yay, finally got a Blog :-D

The Board of Many Ping-Pong Balls

Hi Guys,

The debut project is finished.

It's an 8 by 8 rbg matrix using ping-pong balls as diffusers on a laser-cut base. I had heard good things about the itead colorduino so wanted to try it out. It is significantly brighter than the rainbowduino, and has hardware PWM, freeing up the AtMega 328 for other stuff. I generally prefer it to the rainbowduino, but for anything larger I would go with the rainbowduino as it is much more widely used. There is also much more software written for the rainbowduino, although it could easily be ported.

(sorry, really bad video, filmed on my phone)

Anyways, build log.

First I did the board CAD.

Then got the board laser-cut at school (files at bottom) and hot-glue-gunned the balls in place. When I drilled them I noticed something odd by the end. It is best if you drill them in reverse. It still creates the friction to puncture them, but the scruffy plastic bits go out of the ball, not into it, so not cropping the LEDs light.

I added the LEDs, Common anode from ebay, about 4000 mcd (accidentally bought common cathode first, oops)

Matrix is anode row.

Did the first column

When all was done, I soldered in a 5v 1a wall wart supply and hung it with picture hooks (not ideal, but easy)

I programmed it with various little bits from around the internet.

The one I most like is the Lampduino (instructables)

When I get round to it, I will proggram it for twitter updates (@Da_Shroom)

 

All in all, good way to kill a Christmas.

 

 

#########################  CAD FILES #########################

 

http://dashroom66.org/MatrixFrontPatV.des

http://dashroom66.org/MatrixFrontPatV.dra

http://dashroom66.org/MatrixFrontPatV.dtd

http://dashroom66.org/MatrixFrontPatV.dxf